A Fairview teen who dabbles in songwriting as a hobby now has a writing credit on a Contemporary Christian album. 19 year old Cole Dye co-wrote a song that is featured on the latest album by Crowder.

“We were told it was a one in a million chance at the beginning that Crowder would even hear it, much less record it. It was unreal,” said Cole Dye of the song Crushing Snakes which is on the album I Know a Ghost, released in November by Christian artist David Crowder.

Dye and his best friend Martin Cash began writing the song after an inspiring day at a gathering of young Christians called the Passion Conference in Atlanta in 2018. With everyone in their hotel room asleep, they went into the bathroom to work on it, staying up all night.

“It really just came together. We had a really cool melody going on, than we started adding lyrics and bam, that was it,” Dye shared. “We were trying to be quiet. We started writing at 2 a.m. and finished up the song around 5.”

Crushing Snakes is based on Psalm 91 from the bible. Dye learned from a professor at Belmont after the fact that this Psalm is sometimes known as the soldier’s prayer. “It’s sort of about the battle and winning the war that’s in front of us and how that’s already won. Not being afraid of the stuff that comes against you every day,” he explained.

“So, it’s kind of a battle song for us in that time of life. We’re boys now, you know, we both had just turned 18 so part of a coming of age song too,” added Dye. “We are stepping into manhood, putting on our armor, kind of learning to pick up our swords and how to fight, so to speak, especially in our faith.”

Dye and Cash, who is from Franklin, recorded a demo and shared the song with friends, finally asking the advice of Cash’s father who is in the music business. “He gave us a couple of pointers from a professional standpoint and said, I really think you’ve got something here,” Dye recalled.

It was months later when the boys learned Crowder loved the song, added a second verse and had recorded it. “The night we wrote it, we were in the bathroom, playing the song, flickering the lights like we were in a big arena. We were like David Crowder needs to sing this,” he laughed. “It’s crazy to think what we said as a joke has become a reality.”

Dye has lived in Fairview most of his life and has been singing as long as he can remember. He plays piano and guitar and is active in the music program at Grace Chapel. He has also written songs off and on over the years, and wants to keep writing when he has time. Dye is currently a pre-med student at Belmont.

Dye is listed as one of 4 co-writers on Crushing Snakes. He is still surprised by the events of the past year, but also grateful. “After we’d written it, we kind of knew it was a special song, but didn’t anything would come of it, so it’s pretty crazy.”